Obituaries Australia

A neighbour of the late Mr. [Joseph] Laurie, of Rawdon Vale, has supplied us with the following brief memoir of the departed gentleman: —

Mr. Laurie, senior, arrived in this colony from Scotland some forty years ago. Soon after his arrival he began to act in the capacity of overseer in the management of sheep for the Australian Agricultural Company at Gloucester. For the last twenty nine years he has resided at Rawdon Vale, where he carried on the occupation of a grazier.

Mr. Laurie took to his bed a few days only before his death. On Friday morning we had a chat with him, and he informed us that the swelling had left his legs, and gone into his body. He looked lively then, and was as chatty as usual. To our surprise we heard of his death next morning, Saturday, May 22. He had reached the age of eighty-seven, within a few days, and enjoyed possession of all his faculties till within a few hours of his death.

Mr. Laurie's first wife died about six years ago, aged eighty-one years. By her he had had a family of six sons and one daughter. Four of his sons are in the commission of the peace. His death is, with the exception of his late wife's, the first death in the family for the last forty-eight years. Mr. Laurie married again about five years ago, and leaves a widow and the rest of his family in comfortable circumstances.

The remains of the departed gentleman were taken to Stroud, some forty-five miles distant, and interred on her Majesty's Birthday. But little notice was given of the funeral, and the attendance was consequently small. It included however seven justices of the peace, and the heads of the most noted families around.

Since we have known Mr. Laurie we have always noticed that he had a kind look, and we believe a kind word also, for all who came in contact with him. Those who have known him longest speak in the highest terms of him as a man honest, upright, candid, and ready with good counsel at any time to those who required it. He was deeply respected by his neighbours, and in him another old colonist has gone from amongst us to that bourne whence no traveller returns. We bury our dead out of our sight, and the mourners indeed return, but for a short time only, to follow after. It is to be hoped that our departed old friend has reached a happier shore, where "the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."

Near Rawdon Vale, May 28, 1880.